Budget unveils big taxes, big borrowing and big spending plans

I said this morning that this budget will be big. And big is exactly what it is.

We got a sense of it very early on from the Chancellor when she said: “This Budget increases taxes by £40 billion.”

To state the obvious, this is a huge amount of money.

The gist of what we heard is largely consistent with what we reported in advance: In some places, one or two tax increases are being proposed that don’t actually happen.

As such, income tax and national insurance contribution thresholds that are frozen until 2028 will then be unfrozen.

This is the opposite of what was expected.

Frozen thresholds contribute to what is known as a “fiscal drag” and lead to large tax increases – where people may be forced to pay the tax or a higher rate due to inflation.

But it’s worth remembering that Rachel Reeves could have unfrozen the thresholds until 2028 and chose not to do so, and could later decide to maintain the freeze.

Another tax increase that many thought might happen, but didn’t, was the fuel duty.

But let’s put these two factors aside – this is a huge budget that requires higher taxes.

Also, what will they spend some of this money on – for example, the NHS and schools in England.

Big taxes, big borrowing and big expenses.

But it also forecasts fairly anemic growth and inflation above the 2% target.

One big question is: will all of this matter so much that people will start to think their lives are getting better?